This Wednesday has me feeling a lot of emotions. Sad, angry confused to name check just three. But the main takeaway from election night 2024 is that The United States of America is populated by a mean society that must live sad, angry and confused every day.
I am not despairing though. I will not be one of the many voices on the interwebs that says we have lost our fragile democracy. Our institutions are made up of people and the American people are majority mean. So please do not give me your plea to save democracy, we have been barely clinging to it since this country started. We live in a mean quasi free land. That means our government is mean and quasi free too. It is a reflection of us.
Some may be on this blog for some ray of beer sunshine instead of this jolt of reality. I get it. I would much rather post about a new beer or some funny beer gadget than type the word mean over and over.
So, as John Oliver would say on Last Week Tonight, what do we do? In general and in craft beer. First, come to accept that there are a lot of mean people in this country and that this incoming government will embolden them to be 110% mean instead of hiding it. Life is going to get harder for a lot of people.
Second, we need to call out all shitty racist, sexist, all the -ist behaviors fast and hard. We have to let the mean people know they are mean each and every time. This blog will speak up anytime meanness enters craft beer. And we all need to say something if we see something mean. Don’t let them normalize hate.
Understand that the other key attribute of this country is that it is reactionary. This means that the pendulum will swing back and that we will have to do some clean-up and it will not be pretty or easy. As Americans, we should be well used to hiding skeletons in closets.
For craft beer, join your local and state guilds. Link arms with distributors and shopkeepers. Serve your specific community knowing that it will more than likely enrage the mean because your community of beer fans will look similar to those who gathered in pubs back in the 1770’s. The cozier you are with your neighbors the better.
Most importantly, include anyone that wants to be at your brewery. Craft beer needs to expand the customer base. That was true before Tuesday and is still true. Let’s keep bringing open minded people together over a pint, or two. I will probably need that many, at least, today.